People and Events

Life in the slow lane:

On Tuesday night, the little engine that could, did. For nearly four hours, across almost 200 miles and four counties--and at least six pages of the Thomas Brothers map book--the driver of a 1978 Volkswagen led a string of cop cars on a third-gear chase that never exceeded the speed limit.

The sedate pursuit began at 6:45 p.m. when CHP Officer Donna Urquidi wondered why she was 15th in a line of cars creeping along Malibu Canyon Road.

Then she tried to stop the little white car she found holding up traffic. “At first I thought, maybe he’s from a different country and didn’t understand,” said Urquidi.

But in spite of her orders to pull over, the driver, Bret T. Barish, 29, of La Jolla, kept moving. “On Mulholland he picked it up to a searing 35 (m.p.h.),” noted CHP Officer Cliff Williams.

Four hours and four freeways later, somewhere around Oceanside in San Diego County, the low-speed chase ended when the chugging little comet--by then trailing a long tail of flashing red lights and sirens--ran out of gas.

Puzzled officers hypothesize “that he drove for as long as he could so a blood alcohol level could wear off,” said Williams. And tests indeed showed Barish’s blood alcohol level at zero, he added. “We had nothing,” said Williams. “He had time to burn it off.”

Nevertheless, Barish was booked on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, driving without a valid license and with a suspended license, evading arrest and seven outstanding warrants.

But not for speeding.

It was a dark and stormy day.

And with all the makings of the Great American Screenplay at his or her disposal--a manual typewriter, a manuscript, a pillowed seat atop a milk crate, and the inspirational throbbing of the Pacific--some inchoate author had abandoned that comfortable seaside post in Marina del Rey on Wednesday.

Perhaps it was writer’s sun block.

Sneezing, it was once thought, served to expel demons.

Rosemarie Garner might be persuaded to believe it. The Diamond Bar woman was driving her 1975 Chrysler down Diamond Bar Boulevard, her 8-year-old daughter Joy at her side, when, according to the California Highway Patrol, “she sneezed and closed her eyes”--not surprising, since it is said to be physically impossible to sneeze with one’s eyes open.

A woman jogging by heard the crash. The demon liberated by the sneeze had sent the Chrysler across the sidewalk and into Southern California Edison pole No. 2183353E.

Mother and daughter, both wearing seat belts, suffered only slight cuts, the CHP said. The pole, however, snapped at the base, cutting power to 30 homes for about an hour and knocking out cable service to 3,000 customers for a dozen hours Tuesday.

There was a Lakers game on that night, and “some of the guys” who rely on cable service for good reception of UHF stations “were kinda upset about that,” said Jones Intercable employee Yolanda Phillips, who fielded some of the thousand phone calls.

They didn’t miss much. The Lakers lost to Seattle, 116-106.